Projects

A project groups all your application files together: code, images, sprites, tilemaps, music and rooms. This guide explains how to create, open, and manage your projects in JARU IDE.

Start screen

When you open JARU IDE, you'll see the project wizard start screen.

From here you can:

• Open a recent project: The left list, Recent Projects, shows projects you've worked on recently. Double-click one to open it.

• Create a project from an example: The right list, Example Projects, contains ready-to-use example projects. When you double-click one, the IDE asks for a name (it suggests the example's) and creates a copy in your projects folder that you can modify freely. The StarterPlatformer and StarterTopDown templates are a starting point for a game with rooms: title screen, scene-editor rooms, player, controls and end screen (see Your first game with rooms).

• Create a new project: Click the New Project button to start from scratch.

• Open another project: Click the Load Project button to browse for a project (its .jpr file) anywhere on your computer.

Cancel closes the IDE

If you open the wizard with Home › Project › New, its Cancel button closes the whole of JARU IDE, without asking. Nothing is lost, because the project was already closed: open the IDE again.

Creating a new project

When you click New Project, you'll see the configuration form, on the Project Configuration tab.

Project information

Fill in the following fields:

• Project Name: Choose a name that identifies your project. It has to start with a letter and cannot contain spaces or any of these characters: / \ : * ? " < > |.

• Project Directory: The folder where the project will be saved. It fills itself in as you type the name: the default is Documents\JARUProjects\<name>. You can change it with the Browse... button.

• Author: Your name. It starts with your Windows user name. It goes in the header of the main file.

• Version: The initial version of your project (default is 1.0.0).

• Project Description: A brief description of what your project does (optional). It also goes in the header of the main file.

Additional options

Under Additional Options you can enable these options according to your needs:

• Initialize Git repository: Creates a Git repository, with its .gitignore, for version control of your code. Requires Git to be installed on your system.

• Create README.md file: Adds a documentation file with basic project information.

• Add license: Includes a LICENSE file. When enabled, you can choose the license type: MIT, GPL-3.0, Apache-2.0, BSD-3-Clause or Unlicense.

Finish

When everything is ready, click Finish. The IDE will create the project and open it automatically.

Project structure

In the project explorer

The explorer shows six folders where you'll organize your work:

• Code: Your code files (.aru). The main file is created automatically with the project name.

• Images: The images your application will use. When you import them (PNG, BMP, JPG or GIF), the IDE saves them as BMP.

• Sprites: Sprite definitions (.spr), which combine images with region and animation information.

• Maps: The tilemaps (.map) you draw in the tilemap editor.

• Music: The songs (.jms) of the Music Tracker.

• Scenes: The rooms (.scn) of the scene editor (see Your first game with rooms).

These six folders cannot be deleted or renamed, but you can create as many subfolders as you like inside each one.

On disk

When creating a project, JARU IDE generates the following folder and file structure:

my-project/
├── Code/
│   └── my-project.aru    ← Main file
├── Images/
├── Sprites/
├── Maps/
├── Music/
├── Scenes/
├── Resources/
├── Config/
├── Build/
├── my-project.jpr        ← Project file
├── README.md             ← (optional)
├── LICENSE               ← (optional)
└── .gitignore            ← (optional, with Git)

The Resources, Config, and Build folders are for internal IDE use and don't appear in the project explorer. The Build folder is where compiled files are generated when you run your program.

The project explorer

The left panel of the IDE shows all your project files organized in folders.

The button bar

The buttons at the top of the explorer create items without opening the menu. From left to right: code file, import an image, sprite, song, tilemap, room, folder and delete. Hover over one and it tells you what it does.

Opening a file

Double-click any file to open it. The IDE will open the appropriate editor based on the file type:

• Code files (.aru) open in the code editor
• Images open in the image editor
• Sprites (.spr) open in the sprite editor
• Tilemaps (.map) open in the tilemap editor
• Songs (.jms) open in the Music Tracker
• Rooms (.scn) open in the scene editor

Context menu

Right-click on the explorer to see the options menu:

Create new items

• New Source: Creates a new code file (.aru)
• New Image: Opens the image editor with a new image
• Import Image: Adds an image from your computer to the project
• New Sprite: Creates a new sprite (.spr)
• New TileMap: Creates a new tilemap (.map)
• New Music: Creates a new song (.jms)
• New Scene: Creates a new room (.scn)
• New Folder: Creates a subfolder

If a folder is selected in the explorer, the new item goes inside it. If not, it goes to the folder for its type: a sprite to Sprites, a room to Scenes…

Other options

• Set Main: Makes the selected code file the main file of the project
• Open in Explorer: Opens the item's location in Windows Explorer
• Rename File: Changes the file name (not available for folders)
• Delete File / Delete Folder: After asking, sends the item to the Windows Recycle Bin, with everything inside it if it's a folder. On a USB stick or a network folder there's no Recycle Bin, and it's deleted for good.

Note

The rename and delete options are only available when an item is selected. Rename only works with files, not folders.

Moving files

You can drag files from one folder to another to reorganize your project.

Note

If the destination folder already has a file with the same name, the IDE will show an error and won't allow the move.

The main file

Every project has a main file that serves as the entry point of your program. When you run the project, execution starts from this file.

By default, the main file has the same name as your project and is located in the Code folder. For example, if your project is called MyGame, the main file will be Code/MyGame.aru. You can pick another one with the Main File list at the top of the explorer, or with Set Main in its menu.

The IDE creates it with a header made from the form's data (the description, only if you wrote one):

// MyGame
// Created: 2026-10-29
// Author: Your name
// Version: 1.0.0
// Description:
// My first game with JARU

// Your code here
println('Hello World from MyGame');

From the main file, you can import other files using import:

import "config.aru"
import "player.aru"
import "enemies.aru"

// Your main code here

Saving the project

The project is saved automatically when you make changes to the structure (creating, renaming, or deleting files). Changes to file contents are saved with the save button of their editor (in most editors, also with Ctrl+S). If you close a file with unsaved changes, its editor first asks whether to save them.

Tip

If you enabled Git when creating the project, remember to make commits regularly so you don't lose your work.